Work Text:
“Josuke!”
It had all happened way too fast for his brain to process it. As soon as he heard his name being called, he was pushed to the side, making him land on his butt in the soft grass. Josuke had been about to complain about it when he noticed that Rohan, the one that had pushed him, had fallen down through some tree branches near where Josuke was sitting.
Josuke’s eyes widened as he realized that he’d been about to fall off the unnoticeable cliff, and his friend had actually saved him. The cracking noises of tree branches snapping and a low thud could be heard from where he sat near the edge. Josuke chewed on his lower lip nervously. At the very least, all of the hits sounded very painful.
“R-Rohan? Are you… are you okay?” Josuke asked, looking all around him only to notice no one else was anywhere near them.
Panic started bubbling up inside of him as he slowly came to the conclusion that he needed to go search for Rohan. No one else could help his friend right now. He didn't have time to go look for help when he had no idea whether Rohan was okay or not.
With a deep breath, Josuke adjusted the straps on his backpack and leaned over the edge. He couldn’t see anything other than the trees from where he stood. Josuke bit his lip again; he was five years old now, he was a big boy. He could do this.
A sniffling sound could be heard from below and Josuke instantly perked up at the sound. Rohan was still conscious! Good!
“I-I’m fine. Don’t come down here.” His voice sounded weird, it wasn’t like normal. Could Rohan be crying?
“But! Rohan!” Josuke whined. He really didn’t want to go down there. His hair could be ruined and he could hurt himself in the process, but he owed it to Rohan to try and help him out. Especially when Josuke had the exact way to make his friend feel better. “I’m going down! And you can’t stop me!”
“Don’t be stupid, Josuke! S-Stay up there. I’ll climb back up in a minute.”
His pink and blue friend shimmered into existence next to him, staring up at him with big, wide eyes. “We gotta go help Rohan,” he told it, glancing down again, trying to see anything through the trees. He cupped his hands around his lips, in order to yell back at his friend. “I’ll be careful! Don’t worry!”
It didn’t take Josuke too long to climb down with the help of Crazy Diamond. He held onto the strongest looking branches in order to make his way down and then leaped down to the ground. He even managed to keep his hair looking good! Only a couple of stray leaves clung to it.
Josuke scanned the area, quickly spotting Rohan sitting up on the ground just a little bit away.
Some leaves and branches had gotten stuck to his hair and clothes as he went down. In any other situation, Josuke would have laughed at how silly Rohan looked. But there were tears running down Rohan’s face and blood was coming out of some scratches on his legs and arms.
“Rohan!” Josuke called out, rushing over to his friend’s side. “Rohan, are you okay?”
Rohan glared at him, sniffling once before wiping the tears off his face. His white and gold friend appeared behind him, looking up at Josuke and his friend with wide eyes. He seemed scared. Josuke stared right back at him for a second, fascinated at the realization that Rohan seemed to have a friend just like Crazy Diamond.
“Lemme see,” he finally said, kneeling next to Rohan and placing his hand on the other boy’s knee.
Rohan hissed at the contact, pulling his leg away from Josuke. “What are you doing? You’re gonna make it worse.” More tears spilled out of his eyes at the small amount of extra pain that Josuke's rough touch had brought.
Josuke frowned, grabbing Rohan’s leg again, this time a little more delicately. “Diamond and I can fix this. Just hold still.” Crazy Diamond approached them slowly, placing his finger on Rohan’s cuts.
As soon as Crazy Diamond poked at Rohan’s skin, the wounds on his knees started glowing and healing up.
It wasn’t long until all of the scratches the other boy had completely disappeared from his body.
Rohan stared at Crazy Diamond in disbelief, then back at Josuke, a small frown on his face. “How did you do that?”
Josuke felt his cheeks heat up and he shrugged, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. “I dunno… I learned how to do it a year ago, but I can’t explain it to other people.”
“So it really is just like Heaven’s Door? He can’t heal people, but he can turn them into books and I can read people's lives and thoughts,” Rohan said, wiping his face with his arm again. “My mom doesn’t believe me, though… neither does Reimi… I read it in their books.”
Josuke tilted his head to the side as he listened to his friend talk, sitting back on his knees. “Maybe each imaginary friend has a special ability?”
Rohan hummed, a frown on his face. “I dunno if they’re imaginary. I don’t think you’re supposed to see other people’s imaginary friends.” Rohan sat too, carefully removing the leaves off his hair and adjusting his backpack. "But it's strange that not everyone can see them."
That didn’t really make sense to Josuke, but he assumed he would understand whenever he was older. It wasn’t something he needed to focus on right now. The important thing was that both him and Rohan were alright.
Josuke smiled at Rohan. “Thank you for saving me earlier, Rohan.”
It seemed that had been the wrong thing to say, because Rohan looked angry again immediately after he said it. “Make sure you watch where you’re walking next time.”